Hello everyone,
At this time, Donat Makijonek's machine permanently becomes Nieuport 21 number 2453. On this plane, together with two pilots from the unit (Janczenko on Morane and Matwiejewicz on Nieuport), on March 20, 1917, he intercepts a Austro-Hungarian expedition consisting of a bomber plane in the cover of a fighter . The battle takes place over the village of Monastyrzesko. As recorded in the report: "The large bomber plane did not accept the fight and in a sharp flight to the ground escaped over its own territory. The biplane fighter protecting him, armed with two machine guns, joined the fight, but after several attacks by our pilots, it also escaped. The fight was not resolved, but Donat himself, to his surprise, discovers a number of bullet holes just a few centimeters from his head after returning to the airport.
On April 13, 1917, Makijonek's best described battle of the Great War took place. The fight was so important that it was an allegory of how the fate of thousands of Poles scattered on the opposite sides of the front unfolded. Two enemy Flik 7s (Brandenburg C.1) appeared over the front, coordinating the artillery. The crews of the aircraft were: observer Roman Schmidt and pilot lieutenant Paul Hablick, the second Brandenburg with the number 16.04 was piloted by sergeant Aleksander Klefacas, and the observer was Henryk Szeliga (a Pole). The Russian team consisting of Yanchenko, Gilsher, Makijonek and Martirov attacked the enemy formation with real fury. Klefacs and Szeliga found themselves in front of Makijonek, who opened fire from a short distance, aiming at the crew. The distance was no more than 15-20 meters. Szeliga suffered heavy wounds from his compatriot's bullets, and Klefacs tried to escape at low altitude. Makijonek rushed in pursuit, firing short bursts. In the meantime, Szmidt accurately fired on Martirow's plane, which had to withdraw from the fight and make an emergency landing. It was Szmidt's first officially recognized victory. In turn, Gilsher accurately fired at the Austro-Hungarian machine and, supported by Janczenko, forced the crew of Hablicek and Szmidt to land. During the emergency landing, Hablicek overturned and, unfortunately, died a few weeks later due to head injuries. Schmidt emerged from this disaster almost unscathed.
Sebastian Łydźba - the fight scene between Makijonk and the crew of Klefacs and Szeliga.
Makijonek recounted the fight as follows: At 8.45 in the morning, having flown to intercept an enemy plane flying in the direction of Tyśmienica-Stanislaviv, but not having seen it, I met two planes in the area of Bogorodchany. Approaching them, I saw that one of them was our Morane-Umbrella (as it later turned out from the family's 3rd Corps Division), and the other was the Albatross that was stalking him (it was really Brandenburg C.I.). Our plane was escaping to its rear, and the enemy was chasing and firing at it. Attacked by me in the area of Łysiec, he abandoned the persecution of Morane-Parasol and took up the fight with me, which lasted 7 minutes. With a higher flight speed, the enemy did not give me the opportunity to perform an attack. During the fight, a Morane-Monokok plane piloted by Janchenko approached us. When the enemy was diving at me, ensign Janchenko, by attacking from above, forced the enemy to descend to the same height as me, which was conducive to launching a successful attack. After my last attack, the enemy began to fall quickly, fell onto the wing and fell into the forest, west of Majdańska Buda. Having descended to an altitude of 500 meters and seeing that the enemy plane had burned down, I returned to my own airfield, Markovce.
This story is not true, the Austo-Hungarian plane did not fall into the forest and did not burn down, so Makijonk was not awarded a victory. The crew of the Brandenburg C.I 67.04 aircraft he shot at was Klefacs and Szeliga from Flik 7. Klefacs escaped the oppression almost unscathed, Szeliga (a Pole) was badly wounded by Makijonk's fire, and the shot Brandenburg landed unhindered on his own airfield. On the other hand, Szeliga's shelling damaged Makijonk's plane and forced it to land near the front line. After a makeshift repair, Makijonek flew to its own airport. Szeliga was officially shot down.
This fight turned out to be a spectacular defeat of the Tsar's airmen. Despite the advantage of lighter, more manoeuvrable aircraft, they managed to force only one enemy to land, while on the Russian side, as many as two aircraft had to land due to damage sustained.
This story had its finale a bit later, when Makijonek met Szeliga in the Polish Air Force, this time as a comrade-in-arms.
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I finished painting the base color of the wings. In the photo, the upper lobe is turned upside down, I gave it a lighter shade. Horizontal stabilizers - also got color on both sides. I took the hull, there's still some work ahead of me, for now I'm putting the shading. I hope that by the end of the week I will prepare the whole thing for painting the tsar's markings and applying decals.
Regards
Lukasz
